We've been here a week already...plus 2 days.  We're having to get used to weekends being Friday and Saturday, or Thursday and Friday for schools!  The First Vice President of Afghanistan died yesterday (of some physical ailment) so three days of mourning set in today.  Three of us gals decided we needed haircuts and pedicure, so our driver took us to the Salon run by the deaf women.  That route took us through the congested area of the funeral for the dignitary...quite crazy traffic.  Islam requires a body be buried within 24 hours.  

The Team House here is quite full now.  For the first week, only a few of us ate together and shared stories.  Now there are people here for community health worker training, language study, and other ventures.  We've gotten used to the quirks of living here, at least for this short time, and are seeing more people and places that bring back memories of our stay two years ago.  

Jon is spending his days with Dr. Jerry who has been interim director of the Residency program.  They visit the various locations that faculty are serving and residents working.  AND they are visiting locations for potential residence for the residents!  A hospital is being built by a local who is interested in their participation.  The U. of Af. Medical School in Herat wants them to come visit and consider a connection.  Herat is the other historic city I'd like to see, so may work on hitching a ride on the plane.  My philosophy is that opportunity should be grabbed when it comes!

We arrived after a team of men from the Team House left  5 days of food distribution.  The first stop was the IDP (Internally Displaced Persons Camp) outside of Kabul.   It is huge and they could only serve part of it, but they went to another side that hadn't been helped recently.  This has been going on for at least 5 years.  Two of our afghan workers here at the Team House go beforehand to order and organize food and blankets from local 


vendors.  They also flew to Bamiyan to do
the same, which feeds the local economy.  Their excitement and sense of mission to their own people was so rewarding to witness.  Afghanis helping Afghanis.  

Each family unit was given 50 kilos of flour, 10 kl. sugar, cooking oil, yeast, salt, 10 kl. rice., 2 bars of soap, kerosene, and 2 heavy blankets.  This would last the rest of the winter, approx. 2 months.

Bamiyan is an area, and village located in Central Afghanistan where the massed peaks of the Hindu Kush form a huge tangled knot in the center of the country....known as the Koh-e-Baba (Grandfather of Mountains).  It is one of the poorest yet most beautiful parts of Afghanistan with soaring mountains, deep gorges, and braided rivers.  It was once an important way station on the Silk Road and an important center for Buddhist pilgrimage.  In the 6th century two Buddha statues  of enormous size were carved and put into niches carved out of the sandstone cliffs near Bamiyan.  At 38 and 55 meters they were the

tallest standing statues of Buddha ever made.
In the height of their glory, they were painted and gilded with masks.  Frescoes surrounded the niches.
These were destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban, although they had been deteriorating over the centuries.
The cliffs surrounding each Buddha's niche are honeycombed with monastic cells and grottoes.  In the aftermath of the Taliban's  ouster, many of these caves have been occupied by Hazara IDPs.  These and the Baba Mt. village were the people that our team targeted for relief.


An amazing local woman organized, invited, arranged for the distribution.  The rural people brought donkeys or rented trucks to carry the food back to the mountains, at least as far as they could drive.   The 'team' drove then walked an hour more thru the deep snow up the mountain valley to this one village that was built in stairstep fashion, one roof being the 'yard' for another.  The smoke holes for fires were something to keep track of in your 'yard.'  

The Hazara people living here are considered outsiders, even though they've been living there for 80 years.   The men find menial work in the summer in the valley but have nothing to do in the winter.  The women have the opportunity to do needle embroidery for the amazing lady in Bamiyan.  Their income supports the family.
Some people are too ill or crippled to even leave their home, let alone the valley.

The homes varied little on the inside.  All walls were blackened from the firepit in the middle of the floor.  Beds were sometimes on ledges of dirt.
Here a family looks at the food they brought home the day before this visit.  The 'Amazing lady', whom I won't name for security reasons is on the right in this picture.  She will do anything for these people she cares for.

This woman is embroidering material which looks like a
tablecloth.  Most of the items are for dresses which are left
with the width of the cloth for the fitting before sewing the dress.
Embroidery is elsewhere on the 3 meters of cloth for the edge of sleeves.

The women can come to the 'center' in town and work on the projects in community or take them home.  They are then sold in the Handcraft shop and/or sent to other venues.  Business like these are what are needed to help Afghans  improve their circumstances.

The Team spent a day visiting the cave dwellings in the cliffs near the destroyed Buddhas.  These people have to navigate the cliffs with ladders and ledges.  Many injuries occur in the effort.

 This high school student started a school in her cave-room.  She goes to school in the morning and teaches them in the afternoon, using out-of-date books the gov't gave her.  What initiative and dedication this young woman has!

These are two homes the team visited.  Notice the baby hammock.

Here a mother is bed-bound and the man has built a vented buqari.  It looks like they are bringing in their bag of flour.






I hope you know a bit more about the work and people here near Kabul.  Tomorrow we arise early and hope to fly to Faizabad in the northeast corner of the country.  If today's snow there has not stopped, we will have to wait a day...or two.  We plan to return on Saturday.  You know what our next news report will be about!  Just wish it was bushkazi season......you can research that one!